Since Toca Hair Salon's release in 2011, Toca Boca's playful hairstyling app has captivated millions of kids around the world. Five years and one sequel-app later, the famed app-maker has set out to repeat their success with Toca Hair Salon 3. Billed as "the most diverse Hair Salon app yet", it introduces more diverse characters, hair types, and even beards!

Cut and Color in Style

Toca Hair Salon 3 plays out much like the other apps in the series. When you begin the app, you select a character you'd like to style. Four characters are presented at a time, but you can tap the refresh button on the top right to rotate between dozens of starter characters.

Once inside the salon, you can swipe through several workspaces where you can wash, dry, color, cut, and change the texture of your character's hair. What's new is the small curling iron, which allows you to create a kinky hair texture. There are also new braiding tools: a large one and a smaller one, so you can create braids of different sizes.

Puzzle games are a fun way to help kids develop skills such as logic and problem solving skills. Over the years I have accumulated a list of what I think are the best puzzle games for kids, and the Thinkrolls series are high on that list. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out about Thinkrolls: Kings & Queens.

Let's Roll!

Developed by Avokiddo, Thinkrolls: Kings & Queens is a delightful blend of physics puzzlers and a platform game. The goal of the game is simple: move, handle, and combine objects to clear a path for a ball-shaped character (called "Thinkrolls"), obtain the key, and open the gate to the next puzzle. The puzzles are designed to test the player's logic and problem solving skills, and introduce them to simple physics concepts, such as simple machines, forces, tension, light reflection, and more.

Folktales can teach us a lot about cultures and traditions from around the world. What's more, they often contain positive moral messages that we can take away from.

If you're looking for folktales to read to your kids, one that I recently discovered and enjoyed is Grandma's Great Gourd. Originally a Bengali folktale, it's been made into an interactive book-app with words by best-selling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and illustrations by Susy Pilgrim Waters.

The Brave Grandma and the Great Gourd

The story goes like this: an old woman, whom everyone calls Grandma, lives with her two loyal dogs in a little village in India. One day, Grandma sets out alone to visit her daughter who lived in the village on the other side of the jungle. She encounters a fox, a bear, and a tiger that all want to eat her, but she persuades them to let her go with the promise that she will be plumper, juicier, and fatter on her way home.

Are you fascinated by curious contraptions and inventive machines? Step right into Pettson's Inventions 3, a game from developer Filimundus and the latest in their line of contraption games.

Help Pettson Finish 36 Inventions

For those who are not familiar with setup, Pettson's Invention is a series of contraption games starring an old farmer called Pettson and his cat, Findus. Pettson enjoys inventing Rube Goldberg-like devices, but he can never seem to finish them. This is where the player comes in: following Pettson's instructions, they help him complete the unfinished inventions.

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Educational Apps

Tiny Pirates: An interactive playset that lets kids run their own pirate ship. Along the way, they learn what roles and jobs are required to maintain a crew. Great for ages 3 and up.